Connecting with Inventors and Likeminded People – Part 1

by Tara

When I started this blog I had never been in contact (as far as I know) with any inventors, and it used to completely annoy me that I didn’t know anyone who kept ideas books like me either. Since starting this blog I have been amazed how helpful inventors have been with their time, taking part in my inventor interviews and sharing their stories. Before starting this blog I really didn’t know where I would find likeminded people to connect with, so I thought I would share what I have learned.

Places to connect with Inventors, Entrepreneurs and Likeminded People

Inventor Groups

Meet up

Twitter

LinkedIn

Facebook

Forums

1. Inventor Groups

Although there are many inventor groups around the world where you can meet up in person with other local inventors, unfortunately there wasn’t one particularly close to me. However if you live near a city you will probably be in luck. You can find a list of World Inventor Groups here (UK groups at the bottom)

2. Meetups

Meetup.com is a website which allows anyone to find local people with similar interests to them. Just search for a topic, so for example try inventor, entrepreneur or small business then pick the maximum distance you would be prepared to travel to go to a meet up. Near me I found an entrepreneur group but it wasn’t active at all. Again I think if you live near a city you will have much more luck with meetup.

The video below shows how meetup works

3. Twitter

My Twitter is @ideasuploaded When I first started using Twitter (which wasn’t that long ago) I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about, but if you use an application like Tweet Deck which makes Twitter more instant you will start to understand its appeal. Twitter gives you easy access to people you may never normally get to connect with. You can choose to follow anyone and you don’t need their permission, which means you will see anything they decide to tweet (write about). They don’t have to, but they may decide to follow you back. If they decide to follow you this also allows you to send them direct messages.

Search Twitter by profilesand locality One way I have found to try and find likeminded people is to use a site called Twellow which allows you to search peoples profiles for keywords (ie. inventor or product developer etc). If you click on advanced search tips it will also explain how to find people in your area.

Finding more people to follow on Twitter Once you have found a few people to follow, look in their profiles to find out the people they follow or are following them and make more connections.

Set up Searches on Twitter You can also set up searches using Tweetdeck for keywords, so you can see when anyone mentions anything which is relevant to you. For example I have a search set up for the word “invention”

The video is one of three parts the other two parts can be found on youtube part two and part three

4. Linked In

You can find me on Linked in It’s free to join Linkedin, which is a business related social network. On Linkedin you will find several different inventor related groups, which you can subscribe to, take part in conversations, and post questions to the rest of the group. The Linkedin Groups are much more professionally focussed than connections on facebook. You will find inventors asking for the best way to market their products, questions on IP, people looking for manufacturers etc as well as links to interesting articles. As well as Inventor Groups, if you are looking to specialise in a certain area (eg. toys)you may also find suitable groups which may be of interest to you. Once you have joined a group it is also much easier to connect with its members.

About

Hi, I'm Tara a freelance graphic designer based in Northamptonshire, UK with future ambitions to be more of an ideas, invention, product designer person. This blog will include useful inventor information I find plus inventor interviews. You can also find me at www.graphicdesignblog.co.uk